Bless you

and the beginning of unlimited possibilities. This is the moment when you take the lessons of parents, teachers and everyone else who have impacted your life in so many ways and begin to make your own way in the world. Never again will the security of Middleville, TK High School or your parent’s home protect you from life’s challenges. This thought is sobering and perhaps a bit unnerving to someone still in their teens. But you can be buoyed by the…

In my ethnographic trip I headed to a Non-Denomination Hispanic Christian Church. They hold services every weekend so I specifically chose Sunday night to hear their message. I chose this church because I have a grandmother who attends here and I felt comfortable to have someone I knew guide me. My initial thoughts prior to visiting this church was the same as the other churches I had visited before. I expected to walk in and sit down with no one really paying much attention to me. I was also…

Works, in which she wrote, “The more we learn about our bodies the more we learn about ourselves. God bless you.” Till this day I still have that book to remind me why I wanted to be a doctor. She also put me in charge of caring for the flowers that we had outside of the classroom. She taught me valuable lessons about compassion and nurturing. I learned that you should never do anything for the thank you, but because every good deed is noticed, whether it’s the small flowers that in return…

Have you ever been forced into something that you absolutely would have never done if you didn’t have to? This fear became my reality last Sunday. For the first time in my eighteen years of my life I stepped foot into a church. I choose a local church for this experience called The First Reformed Church. The address to this Christian church is 5387 W State Road 10, Wheatfield, IN 46392. In this essay I’ll be explaining how this experience has changed me as a person and the things I witnessed…

A Desire of the Heart Shirley and I were married between the Arts and Theology years of university so our financial resources were very tight. I was working on a tree nursery farm just south of Winnipeg for the summer months between semesters as well as preparing for a move to seminary in Saskatoon. As a result, we could not afford to take off more time than a four-day weekend. This was hardly enough time for my face to heal from all the mosquito bites I had acquired while riding a tree planter…

would describe the awe this view inspires, the empowering sensation one gets when he/she can look out across all of Liverpool. One feels a warmth that he/she is unable to fully articulate. Here lies the parallel, knowledge places you at the precipice of change and makes you empowered, and as one stands on the building that embodies all of that, he/she feel tingles of the same…

These instances of imagery help to draw the reader in and give them a better idea of what is going on. One such image found early on in the book of Job is when Satan or the Adversary says to the LORD " Have you not hedged him about and his household and all that he has all around. The words hedged him about is another way of saying a common term such as fenced in, guarded or protected. That sentence used by Satan gives us the image of a hedge around Job and…

Have You Ever Stood On Holy Ground? This past Sunday our pastor preached a sermon and mentioned this thought toward the beginning. Since then I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Both Joshua and Moses encountered God in awesome ways. When they did they were told to remove their sandals because the ground they were standing on was “holy ground”. But what made that ground holy? Was it holy before this encounter? Or did it become holy only because of this encounter? Is the ground still…

What does this story say about people? Martha slightly blames Jesus for her brother’s death. Then she kind of back-tracks and displays a sign of faith, she knows who Jesus is. She calls Him Teacher. Yet, when Jesus told the men to remove the stone from Lazarus’ tomb, she displayed uncertainty. Mary also slightly blames Jesus for her brother’s death. But she also knows who Jesus is because she fell at His feet when she saw Him. The Jews that were present made biting comments like, if Jesus…

want you to read and then tell me if you know who wrote it: “Enjoying what we do is not always a feeling of enjoyment; it is sometimes the gritty resolution a man or woman shows in doing what must be done — perhaps with inner dread and yet without whimpering self-pity. I like the phrase, “without whimpering self-pity.” It sounds much more dramatic and important than the phrase, “without complaining.” I also like the phrase, “gritty resolution.” Was there anything that you did last week that you…